Nainar Nagenthran
By using it to raise demands for a particular religious community, Prabhakar has compromised the neutrality and dignity of the office,” Nagenthran said in a post on social media, tagging the official X handles of the speaker and the chief minister. Nagenthran said the Prabhakar’s conduct departed from the convention of speakers maintaining political, caste and religious neutrality. “The speaker cannot use the constitutional office to dictate terms to the chief minister on matters concerning a particular religious community,” he said.
“The speaker’s chair is above caste and religion. Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagenthran on Saturday accused assembly speaker J C D Prabhakar of compromising the neutrality of his constitutional office by bringing his religious identity into legislative proceedings and seeking reservation benefits for a section of his community from the speaker’s chair. During debate on Friday, Prabhakar expressed hope that TVK govt would consider the demand of Christian vanniyars to be classified under the most backward classes category.
Nagenthran also criticised finance minister N Marie Wilson, accusing him of referring to his Christian faith during sssembly proceedings, including while presenting the state budget with a rosary and quoting Bible verses. Nagenthran alleged that bringing religious and caste identities into assembly proceedings undermined the sanctity of the legislature While saying that personal faith was a private matter.